Products clad with thermosetting laminate are common in many areas nowadays. They are mostly used where the demands on abrasion resistance are high, and furthermore where resistance to different chemicals and moisture is desired. As examples of such products floors, floor skirtings, table tops, work tops and wall panels can be mentioned.
The thermosetting laminate most often consist of a number of base sheets with a decor sheet placed closest to the surface. The decor sheet can be provided with a pattern by desire. Common patterns usually visualize different kinds of wood or mineral such as marble and granite.
One common pattern on floor elements is the rod pattern where two or more rows of rods of, for example wood, is simulated in the decor.
The traditional thermosetting laminate manufacturing includes a number of steps which will result in a random matching tolerance of up to ±5 mm, which is considered too great. The steps included in the manufacturing of a laminate floor is; printing decor on a paper of α-cellulose, impregnating the decorative paper with melamine-formaldehyde resin, drying the decorative paper, laminating the decorative paper under heat and pressure together with similarly treated supporting papers, applying the decorative laminate on a carrier and finally sawing and milling the carrier to the desired format. All these steps in the manufacturing will cause a change in format on the decor paper. It will therefore be practically impossible to achieve a desired match of patterns between the elements of a without causing great amounts of wasted laminate. The thermosetting laminate is a rather costly part of a laminate floor.